Cambodia farewells its 'great hero king'

NORODOM SIHANOUK, the cherubic, mercurial twice king of Cambodia will depart as he lived at dusk on Monday - in a blaze of pomp and ceremony - ending the story of one of Asia's towering figures of the 20th century.

Royal astrologists will blow conch-shell trumpets, 101 guns will boom a salute, fireworks will rise into the sky and an orchestra playing traditional Khmer music will strike up as Sihanouk's body burns in a pyramidal pyre at the centre of an ornate crematorium on Phnom Penh's riverfront.

The ceremony, based on the funerals of more than 100 Khmer monarchs dating back 2000 years, will be watched by hundreds of thousands of Cambodians.

A larger-than-life character who steered Cambodia through six decades marked by independence from France, civil war, the rule of the murderous Khmer Rouge and his own exile, Sihanouk died from a heart attack on October 15 in Beijing, aged 89.

Last homage ... Queen Monineath and King Sihamoni enter the crematorium where the king's body has been placed. Photo: AFP

He lay in state at the royal palace until Friday, when a giant golden float shaped like a mythical bird, accompanied by courtiers with pantaloons, spiked helmets and five-tiered umbrellas, took his embalmed body from the palace to the pyre in a city park.

After the flames are quenched on Monday , Sihanouk's wife, Queen Mother Monineath, and his son King Sihamoni will scatter some of Sihanouk's ashes in the Mekong and keep some in a diamond urn at the palace, with the remains of previous kings.

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The departure of the self-confessed ''naughty boy'' who fathered 14 children over six marriages will cement the political dominance of the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, who has presided over Cambodia's recovery from civil war since he took power in 1985.

''This is our last homage to say goodbye to the great hero king,'' Mr Hun Sen, 60, said on radio.

Sihamoni, a former ballet dancer, has played a shrinking role in Khmer society compared with the golden era of his father, who was just 18 when placed on the throne by French colonial authorities in 1941, but quickly defied expectations he would be a compliant king.

As Sihanouk's health declined Mr Hun Sen, a one-time Khmer Rouge commander, monopolised power while accused of using violence and intimidation to quash dissent.

The Minister of Information, Khieu Kanharith, said Mr Hun Sen had sworn a sacred oath before Sihanouk's corpse to protect the monarchy but conceded the role of Sihamoni and his father were different.

''Sihanouk was also head-of-state involved in politics,'' Mr Kanharith said. ''The current king is playing the classical role of protecting Cambodian unity, tradition, religion. The king will survive if he is committed to this constitutional role.''

Sihanouk kept Cambodia neutral during the Cold War, nurtured relations with communist China, helped found the Non-Aligned Movement, broke off diplomatic relations with the US over the Vietnam War and was sent into exile in Beijing in 1970, after a US-backed coup.

He has been criticised for his support of the Khmer Rouge in the early 1970s but his relationship with the organisation responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians was always strained.

''I am Sihanouk,'' he once said, ''and all Cambodians are my children.'' He stepped down from the throne for the last time in 2004.

Australia will be represented at the funeral by the former army Lieutenant-General John Sanderson, who commanded United Nations forces in Cambodia in the early 1990s.